The long-awaited RCUK winter bike build 2012 got underway today with the delivery of the Kinesis Racelight Tk3 frame and Tracer fork. 

Dom Mason’s latest design is a winter training bike with all the accouterments required to survive the season, namely mudguard eyelets and sufficient clearance in the fork and stays to accommodate tyres up to 28c, guards, and long drop brake calipers.

A further development is the tapered head tube, de rigueur on contemporary carbon frames, but an increasingly common feature of a new generation of aluminium offerings (we encountered one recently on Cube’s excellent Peloton Race).

We’ll be adding steadily to our winter steed in the weeks ahead, but today we headed to our trusty LBS and, bathed in the warm glow of the workshop heater, began the project by uniting frame, forks and headset.

Many thanks to Ritchie, Jon, and Andy at Ride.

Kinesis UK

Upgrade Bikes

Lighter than steel and cheaper than carbon, aluminium is a popular choice for winter bikes. 

 The carbon Tracer fork has a huge, 1.5″ lower bearing and tapered carbon steerer

The frame and fork of our Tk3 are united with the supplied FSA integrated headset 

With the jig in place, we set to work with the hacksaw, trimming the carbon steerer tube

With steerer trimmed, and lower bearing in place, it was time to break out the grease gun

With a similar coating of grease at the upper end of the head tube, we dropped in the headset’s top bearing to complete stage one